Murder charge alleges Tacoma man stabbed brother in head during fight, killing him
A 23-year-old man killed over the weekend in a Tacoma home was stabbed in the head by his brother, according to court documents.
Jayden Walters, 18, pleaded not guilty Monday to second-degree murder. He was ordered held on $1 million bail.
The fight took place Saturday morning and Walters’ brother, whose name has not been publicly released, died Sunday.
Charging papers give this account:
The brothers fought about 10:30 a.m. Saturday at their home in the 1000 block of South 88th Street.
They lived there with their mother and the victim’s girlfriend.
Their mother said “it was not unusual for her sons to argue, and she said that the defendant felt like the family did not love him and would start arguments,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
On Saturday morning, the older brother had a friend visiting, and Walters was allegedly harassing him in an attempt to “get under the victim’s skin,” reports say.
An argument ensued and Walters left the room. He then threw a clock into the bedroom, hitting his older brother.
The victim went into his younger brother’s room to confront him, and they began fighting.
Their mother said she saw Walters holding a Leatherman multi-tool with a knife in his hand as she tried to intervene in the fight.
When the victim returned to his room, he was bleeding from his head and told his girlfriend he needed medical attention.
She started to drive him to St. Joseph Medical Center but was met along the way by an ambulance that took the victim. Walters’ mother called 911 to report the fight and stabbing.
Detectives went to both the home and the hospital, where they were told the victim had been stabbed in the left side of the head and had been placed on life support. He died Sunday evening.
Back at the house, Walters left with his mother’s boyfriend to buy bandages at a drugstore.
When his mother called to tell him her oldest son wasn’t going to survive the stabbing, Walters allegedly threw up and hid the Leatherman knife in a planting strip and covered it with pieces of bark. Police recovered the weapon.
Walters was arrested when he returned home.
In an interview with detectives, Walters said he was upset because his brother’s friend asked him for drugs, so he confronted his brother about “the reputation their house had for being a drug home,” according to charging papers.
He said they got into a fistfight in his room after he threw the clock and the stabbing occurred when he lost his balance and fell onto the bed. Walters claimed he was holding the multi-tool knife in his hand while throwing punches.
“He also said that he didn’t mean to stab the victim twice, stating that both times he stabbed him were an accident,” reports say.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 2:51 PM.
